Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

'This ranks right up there with the ugly'

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 10:26am - 21 Comments

Former cabinet minister and outgoing Conservative MP Greg Thompson busts his own side.

New Brunswick MP Greg Thompson is accusing fellow Conservative Keith Ashfield of putting politics before the needs of the people in his new position as regional minister for the province…

Thompson is incensed at an email he obtained earlier this month, written by Fred Nott, Ashfield’s chief of staff, concerning the status of an infrastructure application in St. George, part of Thompson’s New Brunswick Southwest riding. The application under the Building Canada Fund is for federal funding for a subdivision and civic infrastructure in the village of St. George. ”My opinion, put everything on hold in that riding until there is a nominated federal candidate, and preferably until after Sept. 27,” the email from Nott states.

A date for a nomination meeting to pick a Conservative candidate in New Brunswick Southwest has not been set. Sept. 27 is the date of the provincial election.

Tags: Greg Thompson, infrastructure, Keith Ashfield, stimulus

More by Aaron Wherry

RagingRanter

You wonder why we don't just have the provinces collect the taxes to take care of infrastructure in there own domain, and remove the feds from this game altogether. Oh, wait a minute. Then federal cabmins wouldn't get the chance to sprinkle the money around in such a way as to purchase the maximum amount of votes. I'm such a silly bugger to think they would ever give that up.

Amateur Hour

You might find the experiences of the provinces prior to Confederation … and the US experiment under their loose Articles of Confederation … to contain many reasons why this is a bad idea.

Do you really think 10 provinces and 3 territories would fair well, each going in alone?

s_c_f

Yes.

They already do go it alone. The part they don't do alone is the tax collection, the photo-ops, and the shiny billboards praising themselves. The actual projects themselves are managed by the province – alone.

http://intensedebate.com/people/LynnTO LynnTO

So, if provinces manage projects on their own, introduce taxes (but not collect them) on their own, are supposedly in charge of social programs on their own…

Why don't we all just secede and be our own countries?

Patchouli

You know, Lynn, given the disdain Canadians hold for each other from province to province, I do truly wonder if we have succeeded as a nation at all and think we perhaps should at least be split into regions instead of provinces. I live in SK — there is little difference in anything between here and Manitoba. I hail from NB — wouldn't the Maritimes be stronger together — or even the Atlantic provinces?
s_c_f

What disdain? I've been to 9 provinces and lived in two of them. I'd have to say there is not much disdain.

The only time we see disdain is when people think about the vast transfers of wealth like equalization, that serve to do nothing but perpetuate inequality. If we didn't have the provinces fighting with each other to snag the biggest piece of the federal pie, then there would be perfect harmony.
s_c_f

You do realize that there is more to Canada than tax collection and social programs? Wow, what a way to see your own country – a vast tax-and-spend apparatus.

You really think that the country would be flawed if the politicians spending the money were the same politicians collecting the taxes?

Dave

What magical, happy, imaginary province do you live in?

http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

Obviously not the same one as you, because mine is real.

Anon 001

On the bright side, we now know the names of both of these MPs.
s_c_f

Is it just me, or is it the only time New Brunswick is in the news is when there's a Conservative politician being criticized (eg wafergate). The other 364 days of the year, we hear nothing.

Charles H.

Strike Conservative from that, and you're about right. (Unless you've already forgotten about Andy Scott and his various incidents when he was both still an MP and a minister.)

Or rather: the only time that the relation to NB comes up seems to be when it's criticism. Dominic Leblanc makes the news from time to time, but he doesn't seem to get as much attention turned to where he's from as that which occurs when an MP is getting criticized.
Lord Kitchener's Own

Well, this very article is an example of that, but isn't it also an example of a Conservative politician being lauded?

I for one certainly laud Conservative Greg Thompson for calling a spade a spade.
herringchoker

Remember, this is the same paper that broke Wafergate and then retracted its own story months later. The Irving press were also in the bag with the Graham LIberals on the NB Power sale (guess who the biggest beneficiary would have been from that deal?). Don't be surprised if the paper backtracks on this story sometime in October, after the provincial election.

http://intensedebate.com/people/MostlyCivil MostlyCivil

" Don't be surprised if the paper backtracks on this story"

The story is based on a statement and evidence offered up by a sitting Conservative MP. I'd be quite surprised, indeed.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Tridus Tridus

The local paper in Fredericton (Irving owned and Liberal friendly) also posted a smear job about how provincial PC leader David Alward is involved in this, according to Shawn Graham. About halfway through (well off the front page of course) they then mention there isn't a shread of evidence to support that.

Meanwhile, proof that Graham was lying through his teeth when he said they couldn't put the NB Power sale to a vote due to losses isn't reported at all unles you go to CBC News. Turns out NB Power turned a profit without a rate increase, and thus there was no compelling need for an immediate sale.

NB's newspapers are so flagrantly biased that they might as well run Liberal party logos on the front page.

charwatcher

! Thompson is not saying anything about the 19.8M$ that NBers will be paying for 30 years to Australia company Transfield Services for the new Gateway project road. That’s almost 600M$ for 145 miles of highway to be "maintain for 30 years. Brookfield is a subsidiary and Brookfield has former NB Premier Frank McKenna and the King of Spuds Wallace McCain on the board! I'll bet that’s how an Australia multinational company found little old New Brunswick! http://www.gnb.ca/cnb/news/tran/2010e0495tr.htm http://www.brookfield.com/content/corporate_gover…
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Charles H.

Wish I could honestly say that I'm surprised by the revelation of politics (both provincial and federal, from the looks of it) being played with the distribution of federal money in NB but unfortunately I can't. It's pretty much SOP for NB politics. (In fact, the Fredericton paper endorsed Ashfield with a line of reasoning that could be described as "We don't really think he's the best candidate, but the Conservatives are likely to form the government and it's better for the region to have an MP in government than outside.")

So I'll just say that I'm glad Ashfield is no longer my MP and leave it at that.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Stewart_Smith Stewart_Smith

Don't hold your breath for Greg to back down or apologize.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/16/greg-thompson-…
http://intensedebate.com/people/tedbetts tedbetts

What would Thompson have to apologize for?
danby

The public purse being used in a partisan manner – no surprise there
An outgoing MP so appalled by a maneuver that he is willing to publicly dis a fellow Conservative MP – revealing